I missed the third period due to prior obligations, but I see we won it. This is super exciting, we've already gone a third of the season without a regulation loss, that's completely unheard of (yeah yeah shortened season making it sound cooler than it is, but even by raw numbers we have the best start in NHL history).

Number 1 in the East woooo! We destroyed the poor Rangers tonight (I wonder where Richards and Gaborik where? They were probably already thinking about the nice strip clubs we have here). We're playing Ottawa monday and they're only 2 points behind us, we need that win!

I missed the third period due to prior obligations, but I see we won it. This is super exciting, we've already gone a third of the season without a regulation loss, that's completely unheard of (yeah yeah shortened season making it sound cooler than it is, but even by raw numbers we have the best start in NHL history).

Rousey just beat Carmouche in probably the tightest fight she's ever been in. Carmouche got a standing rear naked in the first couple minutes of the first round that almost put Rousey out. Rousey shook out of it, got an armbar in, and Carmouche tapped with I think 7 seconds left in the round.

Rousey and Carmouche was the only fight I saw since I forgot the show was on until I saw a Heyman Hussle post about it right as Rousey was entering the octagon. Was Henderson and Machida shit or something?

Fine system, but that's totally not considering the possible troubles of teams like Phoenix or the addition of teams in Québec and Ontario...

My hypothesis: The Coyotes are removed from the league (the concession is over, not a relocation, I heard rumours of something like that) and the league adds a team in Seattle or Kansas City and 2 teams in the east (some teams are moving back in the west and bla bla for a 32 teams league and 4 8 teams division.)

It's shit it's awful I fucking hate it yak yak yak I wish they'd knock this shit off already and quit fucking with something that isn't broken. Unbalanced conferences/divisions are fucking retarded and I don't know a single person who disagrees. Really, this honestly makes me angry because the whole Atlanta moving to Winnipeg thing is so fucking easy to fix and yet they keep absolutely butchering the process.

Why? Why do you want a change in the divisions? Give me one good reason that this plan makes sense. Unless they plan on adding two teams on the same year that the realignment takes place AND they don't completely butcher the playoff picture like they'd mentioned in the past (I only got halfway through that article before my blood pressure got so uncontrollable that I began leaking from the ears), then this shit can fuck itself with dynamite.

Winnipeg's situation will be fixed next year for sure. While we're here, I'd like a change for the divisions and I'll fucking accept this system if it means that Québec will get a new team

Oh hell yeah! Les Nordiques renaissent! Seeing as their best players are Quebecois, it makes sense to move the Lightning up north...

While I'm dreaming, here's how I'd fiddle around withe NHL. And I accept that much of this is impossible, but fun to think about:1. Drop Columbus, Florida, Carolina and Anaheim since nobody likes them.2. Tampa >> Quebec, Phoenix >> Vancouver ( yes, they have the rinks and fans to support two teams)3. Promote Milwaukee and Chicago from the AHL. These both play in NHL size arenas, and the Wolves have already proven they can compete for fans with the Blackhawks. Actually outdrew them in 03/04

I don't think dropping plans is a plan, I think an expansion is actually. Considering the 4 divisions plan, the 2 western divisions both have 7 teams compared to the 8 teams each in the East. I think Seattle and Kansas City will get teams in the near future and Québec too obviously, probably Toronto too. But I don't think Vancouver or Chicago could host a 2nd team. And no way, Anaheim would cease to exist, the team won a cup and it's one of the best in the league right now. About Tampa, yes Lecavalier and St-Louis are from Québec, but they're both getting pretty old, you don't simply move a team 'cause of its players and anyway Stamkos is the face of the franchise right now, the dude is amazing.

Hey, the old Nordiques were tops in the league, but Colorado still stole them Anaheim's halfass hockey fans won't let them coast by on '07 for ever. That's not a stable market. Chicago supports 2 big league baseball teams...

Alrighty, it's that time again, and this time I missed a good chunk of the season in boot camp, so I'm partially out of the loop! So if these predictions seem way off, call it a mix of the lockout and the time I missed. Also bite me.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Chicago Blackhawks V (8) Minnesota WildDo you really expect me to go against the President's Trophy winners? Well... kinda, yeah. President's winners haven't been faring too well this past decade, with something crazy like two of them making the Finals in the past decade, with only the 08 Wings actually winning the Cup. Plus I have this nagging feeling that Chicago's incredible game is going to slow down eventually. You don't stay that good for this long. Buuuuut with all that said, Minnesota has some amazingly talented players, but Chicago has more. Backstrom is a fantastic goalie but Crawford has surprised the crap out of me all season, and the Wild's D consists of Ryan Suter and apparently nobody else, whereas Chicago has been surprisingly stacked all year. That depth that won them the 2010 Cup is back in full force, and it just contains too much firepower and stonewall PK for the Wild to overcome. I can see them stealing an early game, but not more than one.CHICAGO IN FIVE

(2) Anaheim Ducks V (7) Detroit Red WingsAnaheim is a tough, gritty, nasty team with a lot of firepower, while Detroit is an old guard, stoic, experienced group of veterans. They lost some huge components of their game with Lidstrom and Holmstrom in the offseason, but on the whole they're still great like always, and Howard has been on fire leading into the playoffs. This series will be a tough grind, but Anaheim should have it in the bag if they're able to get back to their regular form quick enough. Therein lies their issue, they had an unimpressive late half of the season and Bobby Ryan has been slumping at the worst possible time. If they can bounce back, they can take it, but for now I'm going to have to say that momentum is just not on their side, and there's almost no team in the NHL more comfortable in the playoffs than the Detroit Red Wings. In a perfect world, the Wings would be the second worst team in the league behind the Blues (and only a tad better than the Flyers), but as it stands they're still among the best, even if they're a lower seed than they're used to.DETROIT IN SEVEN

(3) Vancouver Canucks V (6) San Jose SharksTrue story, my sleeper pick for the Cup before the season started was San Jose, mainly because I figured that they wouldn't have time to start sucking like they normally do with the shortened season. Lo and behold, they found a way to start dipping their hot start into the cooler early. Go figure. But with that said, Vancouver certainly does not have a good playoff record over the last few years. They consistently qualify and win the Northwest simply because they're in the AFC West of hockey. Don't get me wrong, they're a talented team, but they've proven time and time again that they don't have what it takes in the postseason, often resorting to dirty trickery or just plain dirty play. Not to mention their constant goaltending woes with Luongo, and now Schneider gets the dubious honor of inheriting that wild Vancouver media spotlight while possibly not even being all the way healthy? Man there are about seven and a half billion people I'd rather be than Cory Schneider. San Jose knows how to play rough, and when it comes to grit, they'll take the Canoodles every time. Plus Antti Niemi in net? Easiest upset for me to call.SAN JOSE IN SIX

(4) St. Louis Blues V (5) Los Angeles KingsThe defending champions had a pretty shaky start to the season, and the star power that suddenly awoke in the postseason last year doesn't seem to be as powerful this time around, but the fact that they were struggling when I left and then only lost home ice advantage due to the Blues getting an easy last game when I came back shows that I'm obviously missing something. The Blues's main strength that propelled them to the Central Division champs last year was their inhumanly good goaltending tandem, which features a now banged up Halak and a return to form Elliott. Elliott has just been streaky as hell this year, and that is the last thing you want to be in the playoffs. Quick has dropped dramatically from last year as well, but I feel like he has more in him than Elliott does at this point, and the rest of the team just ends up better as well. St. Louis is a very tough, gritty team (read: a bunch of cheap gutless fucks who take runs at defenseless star players to compensate for the fact that they have none of their own), but LA isn't intimidated by such ballyhoo, and can dish it out just as viciously. Plus they swept the season series. Unlike the Detroit matchup, I'm very pleased to say my least favorite team is probably going to get an early exit this year.LOS ANGELES IN SIX

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Pittsburgh Penguins V (8) New York IslandersI love Tavares, I really do. I think he's easily one of the best young players and could easily be the next Jonathon Toews of the Eastern Conference. I love his style, his dedication, his attitude, and his talent. Unfortunately, he has to play an entire full team of Penguins, who have been arguably the most dominant team all year if not for Chicago's historic season. A healthy Pittsburgh squad might as well be that lawnmower decapitation wall thing from Caligula. They choked hard last year but there's no way they didn't learn from that mistake, and their defense is just superior to NYI. There is a bizarre parallel universe where Pitt's defense breaks down and the Isles outshoot them to victory, but we don't live in that universe. Easy pick for the Pens.PITTSBURGH IN FOUR

(2) Montreal Canadiens V (7) Ottawa SenatorsOttawa has really been through a lot this year. Karlsson amazingly recovered from Matt Cooke's semi successful assassination attempt and has already proven that he's in top form as always, Michalek, Anderson, and Spezza all went out with long term injuries as well, and only Spezza has yet to return, and Anderson is having one of his good years (every three years he gets one it seems). So they've overcome a lot of adversity to make it where they are. Conversely, despite winning the Northeast, Montreal has been kind of limping into the playoffs. Carey Price has just been phenomenally wonky in the final stretch, and nobody feels very confident in him right now. With that said, the Habs most definitely have the tools at their disposal, and with two healthy teams on neutral ice with no streaks to factor in, they'd probably take this series pretty handily. But with that said, the momentum just isn't with the Habs right now, they got cold at the wrong time and I feel like that's going to bite them. The Sens surprised everybody last year by almost taking out the Rangers in the first round, but this year I think they'll pull off the upset.OTTAWA IN SIX

(3) Washington Capitals V (6) New York RangersI've been riding the metaphorical dick of momentum for nearly all of these picks, and with that in mind it should be no surprise that I feel like the Caps should take this one. Ovechkin either started 'roiding or summoning some strange voodoo magic because he's right back into his 2007 form, capturing the Rocket with a stunning second half. The Rangers have Nash and Richards and King Henrik and Tortorella on the bench and all the components of a marvelous team, but so do the Capitals, and their biggest star with the most pressure on him (Ovie) will perform better than anybody on the Rangers. In the goaltending department, Lundqvist is obviously worlds better than Holtby, and with that in mind he is the weak link in Washington's armor. If the New York offense can light up early, Washington will crumble like a cookie. Personally, I don't see it happening for four games. The Rangers won't make this easy, but it's Ovechkin's time. He can't choke every year (can he? (God I hope not)).WASHINGTON IN SIX

(4) Boston Bruins V (5) Toronto Maple LeafsThere are so many good storylines at play right here. All the hooplah with Kessel and Seguin, Boston's apparent gypsy curse over Toronto over the last few years, the fact that somebody's last name is seriously fucking Bozak and nobody laughs about that but me, there's a lot to talk about. The Bs are coming in on the brownest of brown notes, and Tuuk Nukem hasn't been himself lately (I blame the fact that he's starting to look like a mix of the One Direction guy and Cubert from Futurama), but Toronto is... well, Toronto. Kessel is a stud, Bozak (LOOOOOL) plays wonderfully, and Reimer has been a class act in dealing with all the hullabaloo and still managing to perform on a nightly basis. With that said, Boston is still obviously a great team and they have a lot of intangibles working in their favor. Chara will always be a force to be reckoned with, and defensively the team is fantastic like always. This is one of those series that I think will have to revolve around a team stepping up and breaking the chain, and for once, I think it'll happen. Boston has been systematically schooling Toronto for a decade, but they're slumping, and Toronto has a lot to prove, and Kessel alone has a lot to say to the city that dealt him away to a perennial laughingstock. Call me crazy, but I see it happening. The Blue and White is finally gonna be alright.TORONTO IN SEVEN

(1) Pittsburgh vs (8) New York IslesIsles in 7Yeah, the crazy pick! I know how Pittsburgh are supposed to steamroll everyone save for maybe Chicago, but this team does not impress me. Marc Andre Fleury is horribly overrated and their bottom 6, despite what they did tonight, do not impress me. Nor do their defense. Sure, Nabokov isn't that good but NYI have a deeper core of forwards beyond their top 6 and their defensemen are extremely underrated. They are not the pushovers that everyone thinks they are and minus Crosby, I think they can top the Pens.

(2) Montréal vs (8) OttawaOttawa in 7I'm an Ottawa fan but I have no illusions that this will be a cakewalk for the Pesky Sens; while I like Ottawa's defense and goalies more, I'm afraid that the Sens horrible shooting luck might continue through the playoffs and may doom them against the incredibly deep group of forwards the Canadiens have at their disposal. Plus, Karlsson vs Subban will be EPIC.

(3) Washington vs (6) New York Rags New York in 6Washington got hot near the end of the season on unsustainable shooting percentages and I have a feeling they hit a wall with King Henrik in net. Beyond Ovi, Backstrom and Brouwer, their forward corps is rather unremarkable and if Ovi isn't filling the net, Mike Green will be nothing but a giant liability on the back end.

(4) Boston vs (5) TarannaBoston in 5Really? The class of the East (fuck you Pittsburgh, I'll take Boston all day every day) versus a team that regularly gets outshot by a 2-1 margin and has also been riding unsustainable shooting and good goaltending? Rask is too good to let the Leafs get away with their smoke and mirrors act they've been pulling all season more than once.

And now the West!

(1) Chicago vs (8) MinnesotaChicago in 4Minny just can't compare to the insane depth the Blackhawks have. Once again, their 3rd line has players that could pass for 1st liners on other teams and their defense is rock solid. Crawford has had an amazing bounceback year and Emery is holding his own extremely well as well. This is a team with virtually no weakness.

(2) Anaheim vs (7) DetroitDetroit in 6Anaheim is another team that has been riding the percentages, masking their inability to drive play towards the other end of the ice. Sure, they managed to beat Detroit yesterday but I have no faith in them doing it more than once or twice. Detroit is still a puck possession juggernaut and it's never a smart idea to bet against Pavel Datsyuk.

(3) Vancouver vs (6) San JoseSan Jose in 7San Jose is my sleeper pick for the West; they dumped human-shaped boat anchors in Murray, Handzus and Clowe... And all of a sudden, their forwards look more dominant than they have in years. Unlike other teams that have tried this experiment, Brent Burns makes one hell of a power forward. People are saying these teams are evenly matched but Vancouver has been bailed out by Cory Schneider for a good portion of the season and with Niemi playing like a Vezina candidate, I think SJ takes this one.

(4) St Louis vs (5) Los AngelesSt Louis in 6If Quick was playing like last year, I'd probably go with the Kings but he has been hot garbage this year. Elliott hasn't been much better but he got hot in April and looks to have carried it over to the postseason (although to be fair, Quick looked good yesterday). The Kings are 8-0 against the Blues in their last 8 games; regression is in order for the Blues and I think they take out the reigning champs. Their defense is miles better than LA's with Mitchell and Greene out and St Louis essentially has three second lines that are all so stupidly good defensively that scoring against them is an exercise in futility.

Lol whoever are picking the Islanders are out of their minds. the Pens destroyed them tonight.

PIT/NYI: PIT in 4Yeah, no, They destroyed the Isles and Crosby will soon join the team. Tavares will be a MVP sooner or later but he can't do everything alone.MTL/OTT: MTL in 6Anderson will win 1 game by himself but the lack of offense of the Sens will be quite obvious, Karlsson is a great offensive defenseman but Montréal's d line is way more solid. Price needs to play his best hockey of the season and yes, we have young players but we have good veterans and team guys to support them. It will be a nice series.NYR/WAS: NYR in 6This will be a very offensive series, the Rangers found themselves after Gaborik's departure and Hank can be a god when he wants too, hecan definitely stop OvieBOS/TOR: BOS in 6Toronto has the better offense but they have no D and their goalies are young and inexperienced. Boston has a tight system and they proved ittonight with a 4-1 win. Hopefully the Bruins will be tired at the end of the series so we can destroy them!

CHI/MIN: CHI in 6The Wild is a tough opponent, it's gonna be tight games but the Hawks have an awesome team and they'll navigate their way easily through the west to go to the finals. I'm a bit too busy to continue, but oh hey!ANA/DET: ANA in 6SJ/VAN: Vancouver in 7LA/STL: STL in 6

Lol whoever are picking the Islanders are out of their minds. the Pens destroyed them tonight.

One bad night does not a series make. With Nabokov out, maybe Poulin will miraculously come up Holtby-style. Also, don't underestimate Moulson, Okposo and Nielsen. They have a deceptively good forward corps. And the big x-factor is Fleury; he was good tonight, I'll give him that much. I still wouldn't bet on him.

Montreal won't get past Ottawa, sorry! Alfie will lead the way and you'll learn to fear Alfie 2.0 (Silfverberg!)

Alfie is 40 years old, he's not an impact player anymore. Perhaps the Isles have a decent offensive, but that's nowhere near Pittsburgh, they have Crosby, Malkin, Iginla, Morrow, Dupuis, Neal (he scored 40 goals last year), Dupuis, Kunitz and add Letang too. The Pens are gonna be stopped by Lundqvist and the Rangers, not by the young Isles.

Even if Fleury is weak and he gives 4 goals, the Pens are gonna score 6.

+1 to everyone picking the Isles! Sure, they got slapped yesterday but the home team winning Game 1 can be credited to adrenaline, not always a predictor of a whole series. Pittsburgh has another big-ass flop left in them.

For the East, I'm taking CAPS, LEAFS, SENS, ISLES.Washington based on their ease of beating everyone except Ottawa for like a month now.Boston's first win feels like an abnormality - those guys weren't the Leafs! Soon as they become a difficult opponent again, Boston will crap their pants.Sens, just... because. Daniel Alfredsson or GTFO

For the West. Crud. I'd bet on Minne at the start of the season, but they're done.HAWKS, DUCKS ( the Detroit era is over, they are old and gimped their asses into the playoffs), SHARKS ( sorry Vancouver, but you're a circus), BLUES ( the shines worn off the defending Cup champs).

This sets up Caps-Isles, Battle of Ontario >> Sens beat Caps like usual this year to win the East.In the West, Hawks-Sharks, Ducks-Blues >> St.Louis stuns Chicago in the Conference final

Desperately dull Stanley Cup final between Ottawa and St.Louis, until Brian Elliott picks the perfect time spring a leak (as he does up and down). Senators feast, and win it all!!!!

I so badly want to see this! I want to see Montreal's only *tough guy*, the undeservedly feared Brandon Prust, try to exact revenge. That said, I salute whoever was on the ice at the time for trying to jump Gryba.

naw, we're gonna beat the Heat because Lebron James sucks! I was actually at that triple overtime game, got tickets at the last minute right next to the Bulls bench. Got Nate, Jimmy, and Marco's autograph on my hat before the game, it was badass

Not sure, I've been talking to Leviathan IX (who is watching the game) and he says it's all Therrian's fault, so I assume it'd be retaliation, but he's also a Sens fan so I'm taking that with a grain of salt. Can't wait to hear Metantoine come in here and try to blame it all on the Senators